Carlsen – Karjakin Game 8

I think we all cannot hear the horrible ‘d-word’ anymore, but @TarjeiJS has some stats for you:“Carlsen’s 8 straight draws (incl Olympiad G11) his longest strreak since 09. Record is 9 draws in a row in Wijk aan Zee ’09”.

In my “behind-the-screen” world championship blog https://mateinmoscow.wordpress.com/, about the World Chess Championship 2012 in Moscow between Vishy Anand and Boris Gelfand, I posted a number of cartoons by German artist Fränk Stiefel. After the seven-game-draw snoozefest in New York, I remembered that I used this cartoon:

(cartoon by Fränk Stiefel)

I think, the cartoon speaks for itself.

Without further ado, let’s go to the tweets of game 8! The chess world expects, no needs a decisive game and the commentators obviously do not want to analyse another draw. @robertris: “Can’t wait for G8! Tension grows which will not help quality of the games, but expecting a decisive result!”

@GMJtis:“Lot of people (me included) expecting real action today in Carlsen- Karjakin. Think we’re feeling the law of averages, but still…”

@pietropilechi: “After 7 games we understood that they do know how to draw. Now let’s see if one of them knows how to win”.

Can you win a game when you use an opening system from the 19th century?

@dgriffinchess: “The system with 5.b3 has been played in a World Championship before. Gunsberg-Steinitz, 6th match-game, New York(!) 1890!”

@MarkTWIC: I said I felt something may happen today but not in this way. Carlsen’s opening hasn’t worked and he may be digging a hole for himself now.

@jonathan_rowson: “I wonder if Sergey realises he can win the match yet? If he plays 19…Bc6 now it’s a sign that he probably hasn’t.”

Time trouble

However, in time trouble, what started as a boring game suddenly became interesting because of some inaccurate moves by both players, and a tweet and a screenshot of the evaluation by @MadsStostad makes things clear: “Heeeeeerrregud #hjerteattakk”.

I don’t think you need Google Translate for the Norwegian word “hjerteattakk”.

@CraigoryC: “After a comedy of errors it seems we have arrived at an equal position once again. #DefWasNotABoringDraw”.

@CazHansen:Wow! What a game. Two big blunders in time trouble today. The games may end in draws, but they’re exciting”.

It was amusing to read two completely different opinions about the move c5 by Carlsen:

GM Daniel Gormally: @elgransenor1: “If Karjakin can’t win after the awful c5? Then when can he ever win?”

And what do you think, GM @jonathan_rowson: “Funny how the idea of ‘blunder’ has changed. Magnus’s c4-c5 probably saved his skin in practice, whatever the engines say.”

Exciting? Come on, you see these time trouble scrambles in the club every week, right? We are just happy finally seeing some fireworks after seven dull games.

@heastoida: “Nothing special, that’s what happens in my games pretty much all the time”.

And the game seemed to end in a draw soon, but let’s ask two experts: Malcom Pein @telegraphchess: “There comes a moment in WCC matches when it’s all about the nerves and not the position on the board. Its arrived”. @nigelshortchess:“OK, I understand this is supposedly a draw, but I would be very nervous with White”.

And ist is interesting to read the opinion of Top GM Teymur Rajabov: @rajachess: “Well,he (MC) is playing really bad chess here. And he is going to pay huge price for it in this match,if he keeps on going like this.”

@ChrisBirdIA: “Carlsen seems to be doing his darndest to lose this game. What the heck is going on today?”

@nigelshortchess:“If you keep playing with fire, eventually you get burned”.

@jonathan_rowson: “52…a2! Black wins. A thoroughly impressive game. I admire Magnus all the more. The will to win is also the will to lose.”

@havanavo: “Think it’s safe to say Carlsen is far from his best. But we should not overlook this was very impressive from Karjakin”.

@danielkingchess: “Carlsen forgot that Karjakin could play for a win. But this time, after some provocation, Karjakin remembered he could.”

And one last tweet for today. I started with a tweet by @TarjeiJS with some statistics, we end this one with more stats: “Karjakin-Carlsen 1-0. The Russian leads 4,5-3,5 after game 8. This is Carlsen’s first loss in 28 games.”